Week In The Life™ 2017 | Bringing It All Together With Embellishments

Today I'm wrapping up my Week In The Life™ 2017 adventure by sharing the last phase in my process and an overview of my completed album.

In the video below you'll see the basic steps I followed to finish up the embellishing portion of this project and then a walk-through of the completed project.

It has been so awesome to see so many people sharing their projects in the Week In The Life™ Facebook Group - feel free to join the community over there for more ideas on getting this project into your album.

For the final phase of bringing all my content together I used the Time Roller Stamp + StazOn ink to add the date to each photo within my album and then I added either a word/phrase sticker or a perforated phrase sticker or an embellishment I created by cutting up my journal cards. Having my words all printed out in advance let's the photos act as supports - love just adding a few things to each one.

In my previous post about this project you saw that I filled all my pockets with photos this time around. To create additional embellishments I cut up a bunch of the journal cards that were included in the kit. I love cutting up journal cards to use them in different ways on top of my photos. You can see more about this process in the video below.

Later this week I'm hoping to share how I tackled Project Life® during this week.

GENERAL REFLECTIONS ON THIS PROJECT

ONE //These words from Mary Oliver have been swirling around in my head this past week: Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. To me it is at the core of what I do as a memory keeper - I strive to pay attention to my life and I strive to be astonished by it's beauty (even in the smallest moments) and I want to tell about it (for myself as much as for anyone else). This project is such an awesome outlet for paying attention, for being astonished/thankful/etc, and for giving your words and images a home (the telling about it).

TWO // I am always pleased to be done with this project/album because it's a lot of work. Ha. I love these projects that have a firm beginning and an end. I love putting them away and not looking at them for awhile and then, one day down the road, pulling it off the shelf and being so happy that I look the time to put it together. I'll be ready to do it again in another year.

THREE // I definitely want to plan this project for a time when more kids are around just for a different take - and the stories will be different next year just like they are different this year and the year before. I had actually planned that originally to be the case for this year but then had a chance of family schedule plans.

FOUR // I love remembering that we always have a choice in how we approach and tackle these projects. You may want your album to include more products and craftiness and that is totally, 100% okay. If you want it to just be words and photos that's totally okay too. There is room for the range of approaches within our community. I love that we can do it one way this time and then do it a different way next time.

Here's a look at the last part of my process and a full walk-through of my completed project:

And here's a look at my completed album via images:

More details on the cover page and reason why can be found in this post.

MONDAY

This year I added flip-up photos on both Monday + Tuesday in the 4x6 pocket. To create these I adhere two 4x6 photos back to back and then use washi tape across the seam on both the front and the back of the images. The top photos live outside the page protector.

Check out my video above for a visual demonstration of how to create the flip-up.

Yeah, I made a few mistakes with the AM vs. the PM on the Time Roller Stamp. It's okay.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

Again, thank you so much for joining me in documenting a week in our lives. And as always, thanks for being a part of this memory keeping community and for sharing your stories. They matter. You matter.This project will happen again next year at a similar time.

PS // If you like this kind of documentation don't forget to join me for Day In The Life™ (next one will likely be sometime next month), December Daily® (kit will release in the fall with the project happening during the month of December), or check out my monthly Story Kit™ subscription that includes story-focused products + education and inspiration each month to help you get more of your stories told.

Love this! I am heading on a trip in a few days and will take this album and the embellishments along with me. I like that I don't have to haul a bunch of stuff with me "because I might need it" I will limit my embellishments to what I have with me (the kit, which is awesome BTW). Thank you for sharing this project with the world!!!

Thank you so much for always inspiring us to tell our stories. Your album is beautiful, crisp, and clean. I totally agree with your sentiments above about being so happy to do this project, so happy to be done with it, and so happy later on to look back and enjoy the albums. This is my eighth year (!!!) participating and I love this project so much. Not only do I love it, but my kids also love to pull these albums out and look through them as well. Thank you for all the time you take sharing your process and album with us! I keep going back to the process you shared with us my first year participating (2010). Perhaps this will be my year to switch it up a bit. Thanks again, Ali!